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A desolate wasteland.
Dry Brown earth, barely any strange, alien-looking plants growing in the ground.
To the left, there is a large conglomeration of such plants, some were green-colored and looked as if they were made of ooze, others resembled large corals where a red liquid similar to blood but not being actual blood at all flowed out, and large flowers with giant tentacles, seemingly waiting for prey to approach, this was a 'forest' in this Earth, and thankfully, the group would not be exploring this.
To the right, there are strange, rat-sized creatures resembling the combination between a lizard and a bird, but without wings, and walking with three legs, the third leg was their tail, and the creature hoped like a frog at great speeds, they moved in groups, and seemed not interested in the students.
And to the front, more and more dry land, sometimes, a large flying creature resembling some kind of wyvern would fly around, however, it seemed to not attack humans, perhaps because its kin has been slaughtered by the giant War Machines resting all around the large titanium walls that surrounded Sector D, making them grow wary to not mess with the creatures coming from inside the walls.
However, the creature was foolish enough to fly above the city, where it hit an invisible magnetic force that protected the Sector, being electrified and barely alive, it was shot down to pieces by the War Machines.
"W-Woah…"
"So those are War Machines…"
"I've never seen them before in person!"
"Damn… They're strong,"
"Heh, I got one of those in my manor!"
"Amazing…"
Most of the students admired the outside world, some others seemed rather terrified, and others were fascinated by the chaotic wilderness and wanted to explore around.
However, Noah and his group were calmly looking around, completely silent.
Despite this appearance, they were all chatting and discussing through their Telepathy Skills.
"Amazing, this is the outside world… So terrifying…" said Arthur.
"You've never gone out, Arthur? I was born in this eternal wasteland…" said Noah.
"R-Really?!" asked Arthur.
"Is that so, Noah-sama?" asked Timassa.
"I didn't know…" said Iris.
"I was rescued when I was around 5 or 6 years old and put inside an orphanage until I was recruited into the Military School. I survived below an abandoned house basement, it was really a pathetic stage of my life," sighed Noah.
"T-That's impressive…" said Arthur.
"I've wondered this for a while… but what about your parents?" asked Iris.
"My parents? They were with me as we survived, but were slaughtered and eaten," said Noah rather expressionlessly.
"T-That's…" muttered Arthur.
"Noah-sama…" said Timassa.
"Master…" said Jon.
"I-I see… Well, I never met my parents, so I don't know how it feels to have them…" sighed Iris.
"I barely remember them as of now. I only remember my father always telling me to be strong and to follow my ideals, and my mother always told me to be careful and cautious of this world and the people that live in here…" said Noah.
"Those are very valuable lessons…" said Arthur.
"You had good parents, Noah-sama…" said Timassa.
"Yes…" said Jon.
"I see, so is this why you're so strong willed, Noah?" asked Iris.
"I don't know. I am simply how I am," said Noah rather coldly.
"I guess that's a response you would expect from Noah…" said Arthur with a bitter smile.
Seeing all the students gathered around, the teacher nodded.
"Hm, we have prepared a few obstacles and small challenges around this area, such as defeating small, mutated beasts, or getting across that one forest. There are many other obstacles too, and Attribute Cores and Ability Cores lay waiting for someone to grab them, this is not really a test, but challenges that you might try to do to incentive rivalry and competitiveness, War Machines will be monitoring this place, so you don't have to worry about larger monsters coming for you, but be careful, small Mutated Beasts can still be dangerous if you underestimate them," said the teacher, leaving the students to do as they pleased.
"Really? There are prizes around?"
"What kind of stupid game is this? We are not kids anymore,"
"Well whatever, let's just go with the flow then,"
"Maybe we can pick up something to play around with…"
"Oh yeah, I guess so…"
"Jon, use Clairvoyance and try to find any Core that there might be around," said Noah.
"Oh, good plan, we could just pick them all then!" said Iris.
"Yes, master…" said Jon, as he used the Clairvoyance Skill, expanding his field of vision outside of his own eyes.
The wasteland was enclosed by several small robots that created some kind of forcefield, so actually escaping from it seemed impossible.
Jon also found out, as he explored around with the party, that there were four main challenges, the Forest, a pit that led to some underground caves filled with small insectoid Mutated Beasts, a small, abandoned town filled with small, mutated beasts, and then there were small dunes.
All four of such challenges seemed that would take a while to complete, so it seemed that it was not intended for the student groups to gather more than one reward.
"Insectoid Mutated Beasts… Let's go for the underground caves then, we can gather all those corpses and make some good profit from it," said Noah, as the party nodded in agreement, and everyone began to run towards the pit.
As the group neared the pit in the deserted land, another group of students glanced at them from afar.
"So they're choosing the pit…" said a blue-haired man with sharp emerald eyes.
"Emerald, do you truly want to target them?" asked a young woman at his side, with long pink hair and purple eyes.
"My Danger Detection never fails… Those people… They are not humans…" said Emerald.
"Shouldn't we tell this to the teacher instead of trying to kill them ourselves?" asked the girl.
"Cathina, I know very well that if we were to tell the teachers, they would see them as valuable soldiers instead of a threat to our society and humanity… But those presences… that bloodlust, and the sickening smell of blood within all of them… I know that they are not ordinary…" said Emerald.
"So you think it would be better to get rid of them before things get worse?" asked Cathina.
"They seem to be hiding their strength. However, I can clearly tell that their power is increasing every day… Most of them are nearing E-Rank most likely, we cannot let these fiends in the disguise of humans grow any stronger," said Emerald.
"Do you believe that by killing them, we would be doing a good deed to humanity?" asked Cathina.
"No. But I believe it is the right thing to do. And the only way to get rid of them is by doing it with my very hands… Adamantine's case… they most likely did it," said Emerald.
"Are you a detective or something?" asked Cathina.
"No, but I am not someone who is fond of beasts within our classes," said Emerald, his eyes glowing brighter as emerald jewels began to emerge out of thin air around him.
"Let's go," he said, walking ahead as his party followed him from behind.
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